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Movie: Fighting Fish
Director: Jamel Aattache
Actors: Kim Ho Kim, Chantal Janzen, Jennifer de Jong, Ron Smoorenburg
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Fighting Fish, the first Dutch martial arts film ever made by first time director Jamel Aattache. The cast includes the popular Dutch actresses Chantal Janzen, Jennifer de Jong and some well respected martial artist Kim Ho Kim, Ron Smoorenburg, Chung-Huen Lam, Bao Xian Fei. Ron Smoorenburg made his worldwide breakthrough with the end fight against Jackie Chan in Who Am I?
The story in a nutshell:
A-Ken (Kim Ho Kim) is a Chinese gang member in search of the person who killed his brother Chau. The evidence leads to the Chinese organized crime in Rotterdam. A-Ken falls in love with a Dutch blonde girl Jennifer (Chantal Janzen) during his quest. Her brother Marc (Ron Smoorenburg) doesn't trust A-Ken and tries to break up their relationship. Things turn ugly when Jennifer gets involved and is being chased by the gang members.
The story isn't original, straightforward and could use a bit more suspense in its third act. It came as a (pleasant) surprise that most of the dialog is in Cantonese or English with just a few Dutch sentences. This is of course risky and unusual for a "Dutch movie". Kim Ho Kim has done a fine job with his acting debut as the introvert, mysterious character A-Ken but unfortunately there's lack of chemistry between Kim and Janzen to make their romance more realistic. I do admire Jamel Aattache's effort to squeeze everything out of the movie's low budget to give it a professional look.
Of course the flick is all about the fight sequences and there's plenty of them. The actors trained for months to come up with something fresh and new without the help of wires or CGI. The result is fascinating and a relief from all the wire-fu rip-off movies we've seen lately. Fighting Fish is old school kung-fu! The martial artists throw jaw-dropping surreal kicks and punches like Bruce Lee, Jet Li , Biao Yuen and Jackie Chan did in their movies from the seventies and eighties. Highlights are the Ron Smoorenburg and Kim Ho Kim fight in the parking lot and the ring fight of Wushu Champ Bao Xian Fei and Chung-Huen Lam. The film is definitely gaining strength with Yorick Goldewijk's wonderful score.
Fighting Fish is a small movie, has its flaws but the movie's beautifully choreographed fight sequences pays a lot of respect to the old school kung-fu movies.
Written by Reggy 04/02/04
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